New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Ajami ***
• The Girl on the Train ***
• Greenberg **1/2
• Mother
• Repo Men **1/2
• The Runaways
• More

• Armored
• Astro Boy
• Broken Embraces
• Dillinger Is Dead
• Fallen Angels (Blu-Ray)
• The Fourth Kind
• Ninja Assassin
• The Princess and the Frog
• Undead: The Vampire Collection
• Wonderful World
• The 25 Best DVDs of 2009
• More

• 2009: The Year's Ten Best Films
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My 2003 Interview with Brittany Murphy
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards 2009
• Richard Linklater
• John Woo
• Jared and Jerusha Hess
• Essential Halloween Movies
• Michael Stuhlbarg
• Jane Campion
• Bobcat Goldthwait
• Hugh Dancy
• Kathryn Bigelow
• Willem Dafoe: The 2009 CineVegas Interview
• David Carradine
• A 2002 Interview with Edward Asner
• Vinessa Shaw
• Henry Selick
• 2008: The Year's Ten Best Films
• The San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards 2008
• The 25 Best DVDs of 2008
• Bruce Campbell
• Darren Aronofsky and Marisa Tomei
• Josh Brolin
• A Tribute to Paul Newman
• Steve Coogan on Hamlet 2
• Manny Farber (1917-2008)
• Bernie Mac (1957-2008)
• Emily Mortimer
• Brad Anderson
• Don Cheadle at CineVegas
• Abel Ferrara at CineVegas
• Tina Sinatra
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• The Top 50 Movies of the Past Ten Years (1997-2006)
• Terry Zwigoff on the new Bad Santa Director's Cut
• Alfonso Cuarón Interview
• Guillermo Del Toro Interview
• Christmas Movies
• Combustible Celluloid's Big Guide to Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• Actress Interview Gallery
• The Top 100
• More Features and Interviews

• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• Guide to Essential Movies, by Joe Leydon
• Cecil B. DeMille's Hollywood, by Robert S. Birchard
• Profoundly Disturbing, by Joe Bob Briggs
• A Third Face, by Samuel Fuller
• Dark Lover, by Emily Leider
• Agee on Film, by James Agee
• Lulu in Hollywood, by Louise Brooks
• Negative Space, by Manny Farber
• 5001 Nights at the Movies, by Pauline Kael
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Thank You for Smoking (2006)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Puff Guys

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Thank You for Smoking on DVD

Most social/political satires forget to balance character with plot, or worse, the thin jokes collapse under the pressure of an easy, likeable third-act conclusion. But the new Thank You for Smoking deftly avoids all these pitfalls, checking in as a well-rounded and hilariously direct satire. After a series of short films, writer/director Jason Reitman -- son of Ivan (Ghostbusters) Reitman -- makes his big screen debut with this story of a tobacco lobbyist, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart). Whip-smart and cavalier, Nick enjoys his luxurious lifestyle, even if he doesn't believe the B.S. he's slinging. In one of the movie's high points, he keeps a standing dinner date with a gun lobbyist (David Koechner) and an alcohol lobbyist (Maria Bello) so that they can complain about their unique jobs. Adapting Christopher Buckley's novel, Reitman effortlessly weaves together many potentially clumsy storylines: Nick tries to bond with his son (Cameron Bright), the product of a broken marriage; Nick has an affair with a sexy reporter (Katie Holmes); Nick meets with a Hollywood producer (Rob Lowe) to cook up a new "image" for cigarettes; Nick meets with a cancer-ridden advertising cowboy (Sam Elliott); Nick battles a Vermont senator (William H. Macy) over warning labels. Great character actors keep turning up in each of these threads, and they dissipate into the material rather than protruding from it. Most of all, Thank You for Smoking doesn't wear its message on its sleeve and doesn't particularly care if anyone gets the point. It just wants to be good and funny.

Starring: Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello, Cameron Bright, Adam Brody, Sam Elliott, Katie Holmes, David Koechner, William H. Macy, J.K. Simmons, Robert Duvall, Kim Dickens, Rob Lowe, Todd Louiso, Dennis Miller, Joan Lunden
Written by: Jason Reitman, based on the novel by Christopher Buckley
Directed by: Jason Reitman
MPAA Rating: R for language and some sexual content
Running Time: 92 minutes
Date: March 24, 2006